Artist Managers: What HarrisonParrott’s new ownership model means for the agency

It isn’t often that an artist management story hits a broadsheet, but news of a major share transfer involving the HarrisonParrott office merited a significant tally of column inches in The Times. The majority of shares in the company held by co-founder Jasper Parrott have been sold to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), which (via trustees) will henceforth oversee HarrisonParrott in the interests of members of staff.

Created under the coalition government in 2014, EOTs are designed to offer a practical alternative to the route by which owners simply sell their companies to the highest bidders, a situation which cannot guarantee continuity and security for employees. Under an EOT, shares transferred are paid for across a period of time from the income generated by the activity of the ongoing company… not via a one-off payment drawn on the company’s capital reserves. Employees are the beneficiaries of the arrangement, not shareholders.

A significant development then, in the history of a company which from its foundation in 1969 (with Parrott in partnership with Terry Harrison) was a major player in the redefinition of what the work of a ‘concert agent’ could and should be. The rebellious pair more than ruffled feathers when attempting to put into practice their ideas on management style while both worked for the famous, but somewhat outmoded, Ibbs & Tillett business. Ibbs & Tillett operated as a supermarket for promoters, offering them a large list of artists from which to select their purchases. Parrott and Harrison wished to skew things decisively towards the intensive management of a small list of artists, strategically building their careers.

Jasper Parrott: 'We've had a couple of emergency plans in place in case I was careless enough to walk under a bus, but we realised we had to take a longer-term perspective' (image courtesy of HarrisonParrott)

Commencing operations in the time-honoured start-up fashion by working from their respective homes, Harrison and Parrott developed their new business into a global market leader, demonstrating this management approach so successfully — via the promotion of such artists as Vladimir Ashkenazy and André Previn — that competitors were bound to follow in their footsteps. Orchestra touring and event management became part of the HarrisonParrott remit. In due course, Terry Harrison set up in business on his own, while HP continued to grow, hallmarks being the opening of offices abroad in Paris, Madrid, Munich and Beijing… and the emergence of sister company, Polyarts, which has explored new avenues of cross-genre activity and its presentation under Parrott’s daughter, Moema Parrott. Along the way HP has built a staff profile that is nothing if not cosmopolitan.

Fifty-four years on from that HP start-up, the 79-year-old Parrott insists his health and appetite for work remain unimpaired. ‘I have the hope of durability given my genes… my mother lived to the age of 103. But accidents can happen. Things can suddenly crop up which you never dreamt would be possible and the worst thing for a business is bad shocks. We've had a couple of emergency plans in place in case I was careless enough to walk under a bus, but we realised we had to take a longer-term perspective on continuity, succession and the empowerment of the company’s staff.’

Hence, after more than a year of deliberation and consultation, the EOT solution, under which Moema Parrott becomes HP chief executive officer. Her father becomes executive chairman, tending to ‘the vision of the company… for as long as it’s appropriate for me to do so.’ He stresses that the structure of the company going forward resembles the attitude to employees famously displayed at the John Lewis Partnership. ‘There you have very strong, independent management and leadership but with decisions made in consideration of the benefit to employees, who enjoy the right to have their views expressed and listened to.’

Moema Parrott: 'It’s a huge responsibility nonetheless to carry forward my father’s life’s work.' © Bertrand Bouchez

Moema Parrott acknowledges that taking on her new role as CEO of the core HP business is something of leap from her distinctive Polyarts brief. ‘However, the main company has been transformed in the last five to ten years in ways that have made my input more relevant. Classical music is having to change, not least in catering for new audiences. For example, HarrisonParrott now has a dance and choreography department. There’s Virtual Circle, our online concert and event live-streaming platform, and the Birdsong publishing/composer management wing… satellite operations around the core business. The younger generation in the company buys into all this. So it’s been possible for me to see how, with my background, I could add value to the way the company is developing. It’s a huge responsibility nonetheless to carry forward my father’s life’s work. I’ll be staying true to the vision of the company.’

What, then, of the employee perspective? Have HP staff, the intended beneficiaries of the EOT, felt part of the consultation process leading to its implementation? ‘Very much so,’ says Jane Brown, HP’s director of artist management. ‘This is something that’s been discussed in a very confidential fashion for almost a year. There was an in-person session to discuss the situation with us before the plans were developed. We were reassured that management would listen to any questions and concerns and that it was very open to ideas put forward.

‘I think all staff members feel incredibly touched by Jasper’s decision to empower us in this way. The EOT guarantees a continuation of the way things happen now. One of the biggest benefits is the sense of collective responsibility and motivation that it will generate. Everybody in the company can share in the vision of what the future should be.’

So what is the central challenge (or opportunity) the immediate future will throw up? Jasper Parrott names the need to develop the notion of artist managers taking on the role of ‘producer’ in the broad sense of the word, facilitating projects of many kinds which present classical music in an array of contexts and partnerships with other art forms. ‘I'm very much engaged with the idea that we must empower our staff in order for them to support our artists’ visionary projects… in a coherent and systematic way. One of the reasons for people to stay on our staff is precisely this.’

Meanwhile, with the responsibility for running HP falling from his shoulders, Parrott looks forward to exploring creative avenues which have been on the backburner. ‘For example, there are at least two books I want to write. Of course, I was worried about how I might feel having made this decision to step back. I couldn't predict my mood when I woke up on the morning of the EOT announcement… but actually I felt in a very positive frame of mind. I’ve started to think about all the things I'm going to do, engaging myself in them as madly as ever, but within a different framework.’